Horror Characters

Early horror contained monsters as the antagonist, such as Frankenstein etc. Characters changed to people with motives for the crimes they committed much like a murder mystery but involving high levels of graphic violence, films such as scream are an example of this. In many of the horror films the antagonist has some supernatural power, such as immortality which puts great odds against the victims and heroes. More modern horror films have very little contact between the antagonist and the victims such as the Saw films.

The changes in the type of character are because the style becomes over used and stale. They cycle through different types of characters as time goes.

Horror films have certain type of characters including the protagonist/ killer they can have supernatural abilities or just be mentally disturbed which sets them on their killing spree. There are heroes, they are the characters that are usually timid and morally superior and because of this they survive the attacks on their life (e.g. Laurie Stroud in Halloween). There are usually characters that have a greater knowledge of the killer or supernatural events they can be either good or evil and they can put an end to antagonist’s killing spree.

Horror Film Research

When researching the horror genre we were required to watch other films of the genre to learn how they have used the repertoire of elements of the specific genre. The films watched included:

Halloween (original)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (remake)

Saw

The Grudge

The Ring

Scream Trilogy

Nightmare on Elm Street

Friday the 13^th

Dracula

Drag Me to Hell

Iconography

The iconography in horror is more apparent than most other genres. Films like Dracula have heavy gothic style sets and props, this tied in with other ideas from the repertoire of elements adds to the horror.

Iconography in this genre includes items that have the ability to stop the monster such as the crucifix in the films that include vampires. The genre usually has iconography that is aged such as old books contain information on how to defeat certain characters.

More modern films such as Saw, where there is mechanised killing use dark locations with rusted metal props to add to the feeling of disgust and despair. The sets are usually dark and wet and enclosed to give the audience the feeling that the character is trapped unto the will of their aggressor.